


Tough love

by Munnin



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 21:59:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15010307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Munnin/pseuds/Munnin
Summary: When things go wrong, everyone has their part to play. And the Hanger bay pit captain has to be in control when lives are at stake.





	Tough love

“Out of the way!” The pit-captain bellowed, dragging one of her ground crew with her as she rushed to clear the deck. The X-wings were coming in hot and hard, most of them too damaged to land properly. “Fire crews on the ready. Medics, hold your positions. Let the deck crew do their jobs. I’ll have no more deaths today.”

They’d lost too many in the air. She was damned if she was going to lose more on the ground. Not if she could help it. 

They had drilled for this. Or something like it. But drilling wasn’t the same as the real thing. Most of her ground crew were as green as the pilots they supported. Experience was too often a casualty of war. But she trusted them to obey orders. And to learn from her.

The scrap of metal on metal was almost louder than she could bear as the first of them came in. There was barely enough engine left to even count it as a ship anymore. The pilot was screaming, writhing. 

Force help the poor kid.

A medic rushed forward and she had to grab him by the collar and pull him back. “DON’T!”

“He’s hurt!” The medic struggled, but she was use to hauling engines. One skinny medic wasn’t hard to hold onto. “He’s dying.”

“And you will be too if you don’t let the fire crew do their thing!” She growled, all but lifting him off the ground to keep him from bolting. 

X-wing fuel burned very hot and colourless. Almost invisible. 

It was all too easy to miss the subtle flicker, the way the air shimmered at the edges. 

All you could see was what it did. Bubbling paint and searing flesh. 

But you could smell it clear enough. A smell you never forgot. No matter how hard you tried.

Once the fire-crews had a layer of foam down and the air had stopped shimmering, she let the medic go. “Do your thing. Get him out. We’ve got more coming in.”

It was a bad day. Twelve pilots went out, seven came back. And three of them would be lucky to make it through the night. Even with bacta. 

She waited till the hanger bay was cleared and cleaned, the damaged ships assessed and the salvage work started. Not till every speck of foam and drop of blood was mopped up, did she head to the medbay.

The young medic she’d held back earlier was still working as she leaned on the door-frame. He was busy treating abrasions to the arm of one of her engineers. An engineer dumb enough to be careless around a twisted engine cowling.

The engineer ducked his head when he spotted the pit-captain, making his obeisance as scurried out of the medbay, his bandaged arm held close to his chest. 

The medic scowled at her as he washed his hands. “They’re afraid of you.”

“They respect me.” The pit captain answered with a snap. “Yeah, I’m hard on them. To keep them safe.” She nodded after the rabbiting engineer. “He’ll never hurt himself like that again. And he’ll make sure others don’t either.” 

“That doesn’t excuse how rough you are on them.” The medic huffed. “Or on me.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Is that so? Do you know how hot X-wing fuel burns?”

“I’ve seen what it does.” He gestured to the first pilot they pulled out. Even through the murk of the bacta, the unconscious young man’s injuries were clear. His hair burnt, one cheek blistered. 

“You’ve seen what it does to a pilot. A pilot protected by a flash-proof suit and a helmet.” She pointed out. “Now if you’d been caught in that fire, that goo wouldn’t have done you any good at all. We’d be sweeping your ashes off my deck.”

The medic opened his mouth to argue when the pilot came to, panicking.

The medic leapt to the control pad to the tank as warning lights lit up. “His heartrate is too high. I have to pull him out and sedate him.” 

“I got this.” The pit captain called, pressing her hand to the clear duro-plast of the tank, her face level with the pilot’s. “Hey, hey. Look at me. Look at me. Calm down, kid. Level out and cool your jets.”

The pilot tried to say something around the breather but she shushed him. 

“No, you shut up now.” For all her harsh words, her tone was soft and fond. “You did good. You’re gunna be okay. Just breathe slow. You just let the doc look after you, okay. You did your job. Let him do his. Just breathe”

Little by little, the pilot calmed down. The alarm lights turning from red to amber to green.

“Rest now.” She soothed, “You just rest.”

The medic shook his head. “How did you do that?”

The pit captain shrugged. “Fliers, ground crew, engineers. They’re all my kids.”


End file.
